Hiding a House in the Apocalypse

It has been 1 year and 8 months since the war started.

It's a lazy spring day where the air is gradually getting warmer.

Gunshots can be heard in the distance.

Is it starting again?

I wonder how many bullets that mother and daughter have.

They seem to be shooting thousands of rounds, so maybe they've set up a bullet factory.

Lately, it seems she has been teaching their daughter how to shoot as well.

Sometimes I hear two gunshots in a row.

Is this early education for the apocalypse?

That crazy sniper is a great marksman.

She can make ordinary people retreat with just a shot that chills their spines, like the reflection in the rear-view mirror of a vehicle. But when it comes to direct threats like zombies or looters, she never fails to put bullets right between the eyes.

Not to mention the ample supply of grenades.

I've seen crates with claymores and guided missiles like Javelins inside.

What's bothering me lately is not the gunshots from the mother and daughter.

It's a good sound.

What's really getting on my nerves right now is the roar of the transport planes crossing the sky.

Lately, there have been more transport planes.

To the extent that it rivals the period just before the war.

I heard that the resistance in China has completely disappeared, so what's the problem?

Recently, there's been a sudden craze for lottery tickets in Seoul.

It's definitely a trend.

Anonymous848: I heard the rumours too, and they say it's pretty good?

Kyle_Dos: I had to visit Seoul briefly, and everyone was talking about lottery tickets.

Anonymous458: I heard it's really a life-changing jackpot if you win first place!

Looking at what our community members are interested in, who are prepared to face the world and pile up their dreams...

I thought I was a somewhat heavy person.

Should I say dignified, someone who doesn't easily get swept away by trends?

SKELTON: (Skeleton Question) Where can you buy lottery tickets?

But I am curious about it?

If you don't know, you should ask.

Unfortunately, unpopular users like me don't get many replies.

What could be the problem?

Could it be that (Skeleton Question) my post is the issue?

It's purely a feeling, but I feel like there were more replies when I was active normally than there are now...

Fortunately, before my impatience hit rock bottom, someone replied.

Defender: You don't buy them. You have to participate in national labour to get them.

"..."

The one who replied was the Human Hunter.

I'm grateful, but this guy is still a bit off.

Why didn't he just not comment on my post?

But this time, there was a reason for his reply.

Defender: Lottery Ticket Verification

This guy actually bought a lottery ticket.

<Hope Lottery>

His lottery ticket verification was the beginning of his "lottery series" that he wanted to write.

Defender: I'm going to serialize lottery stories from now on. Those who want to see can see, and those who want to ignore can ignore.

It's amazing.

This psychopath who used to only post murder verifications is now writing about the hottest topic lately.

His actions became well-known during the Damien04 incident, but suddenly doing something virtuous like this probably has something to do with the Christmas tree incident.

The image sharing sarcasm has shocked the Human Hunter quite a lot and had retorded.

Defender: Wait, did I really do something wrong?

Seeing that, I was convinced that this guy is a real psychopath.

Anyway, regardless of the reason, the Human Hunter's lottery series satisfied the information thirst of users like me, who are far from Seoul.

Hope Lottery was surprisingly similar to Lotto.

The only difference was that while Lotto had 46 total numbers, Hope Lottery had 44, making the winning odds much higher than Lotto.

You couldn't buy Hope Lottery tickets with money; instead, they were awarded to those who participated in specific national labour projects and completed the required tasks, along with their wages. The draw took place once every three days at designated locations specified by each district office.

Defender: The 5th prize was toilet paper.

Perhaps due to good luck, the Human Hunter verified his lottery win by showing the toilet paper he received. Unlike the embossed, soft toilet paper I had stocked up on, this was rough-textured, cheap-looking toilet paper that could potentially irritate sensitive skin.

However, even such low-quality toilet paper seemed to hold value for Seoul citizens who were running low on essentials, enough to exchange for several meals.

As the rank increased, the prizes got better. It included not only staples like sugar, rice, and powdered milk but also luxury items like cigarettes, alcohol, and pharmaceuticals.

The highly anticipated 1st prize was quintessentially Korean—a trophy in the form of an apartment.

Defender: It's this kind of apartment?

The Human Hunter added another picture.

Despite his posts being informative, they rarely received comments. However, the last picture he posted was an exception.

<Towards a Post-War Future Residential Area: The Hope>

The picture depicted a housing complex with a design reminiscent of a chaebol mansion that had astonished everyone before. It featured densely packed apartments surrounding a central concrete wall. In the middle, there were farmlands, workshops, soccer fields, basketball courts, sports facilities, and a large hall for various events.

Compared to chaebol houses, there were more apartments to accommodate family members, and the golf courses had transformed into soccer fields and more. Of course, the scale was thousands of times larger than a chaebol mansion.

Anonymous848: This is it. This!

Kyle_Dos: Are you kidding? Is this for real?

Anonymous458: Isn't this a mass-produced chaebol mansion?

The community's response was overwhelmingly positive. To the extent that some users were questioning their long-held beliefs.

DocKim: I want to live in a place like that.

qwer1234: If such places existed before the war, people wouldn't have bothered digging for land or anything; they would have just moved in there.

mmmmmmmmm: Living in a bunker is getting old. Koreans should live in apartments.

Indeed, life in a bunker was quite annoying. It was cold in winter, hot in summer, humid, smelled bad, and insects kept coming in endlessly. It was cramped, and there were no windows. Even with all my efforts, the bunker remained stuffy, which was why I tried to go outside to breathe fresh air whenever there was a chance.

My beautiful bunker, which was more like an underground kingdom, was probably more comfortable than a standard-sized bunker. But how suffocating must it be for those living in ordinary, cramped bunkers?

I believe that one of the reasons why my favourite Anonymous337 committed suicide, aside from complex factors, was the stress from the cramped and uncomfortable bunker life.

As for my thoughts on the trending apartment "The Hope,"

SKELTON: (Skeleton Analysis) Before we discuss whether The Hope is good or bad, is it even feasible?

A question mark.

As usual, no one responded to my opinion, but someone did give it a like.

In the grand scheme of things, the small ball thrown by the Human Hunter echoed with its own small reverberation in the hearts of us doomsday enthusiasts.

But the creepiest part was yet to come.

***

About a week after the completion of the Human Hunter's Hope Lottery series, a new post appeared on the community and quickly became a popular thread.

"Wait?!"

Seeing the post rise to popularity in real-time, I couldn't help but feel a considerable sense of self-reproach. In the past, I had resorted to some technical manipulation to boost the views of my meticulously crafted long posts, which barely made it to the popular section, but this time I couldn't stand by and watch.

I engaged in some click-farming myself, artificially boosting the view count by around 100 times!

Viva! Apocalypse! creator Melon Mask hadn't sealed the function of self-boosting views, so I used this method to increase my post's visibility. However, this new popular post had none of that. It had comments from every viewer and received likes at a high frequency—a true popular post, without a doubt.

I clicked on it with a mixture of jealousy and frustration.

mmmmmmmmm: I won the Hope Lottery lolololol

"Ah."

It was indeed an appropriate content for such popularity.

As I contemplated my failure, I read the post:

• mmmmmmmmm: Inspired by Defender's post, I left the bunker and participated in the national labour support. I went to the Jungnang District, where the military personnel at the entrance were demanding entrance fees like bandits. Despite the frustration, my curiosity about the lottery got the better of me. I managed to secure a spot in the national labour by doing some hard labour in front of the district office, and I received a lottery ticket.

Luckily, it was the day of the draw, and I verified it at the district office square. The results are as follows!

<Congratulations! Hope Lottery 1st Prize Winner!>

mmmmmmmmm.

The owner of this unenthusiastic and disoriented username had won the 1st prize of the Hope Lottery issued by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. In other words, they had earned the right to live in the highly admired, comfortable new apartment, promising a clear view, rather than the cramped bunker they had been enduring. The winner was ecstatic.

mmmmmmmmm: Hey, where can I find a woman to marry now? If you're a "The Hope" winner, beautiful women must be lining up, right?

He was genuinely excited, the kind of person who had suddenly and strangely transformed after winning the lottery.

mmmmmmmmm: They say I'll move in next year. I might go crazy if I have to stay here any longer.

mmmmmmmmm: Thinking about it now, I probably didn't need to dig bunkers and hoard supplies. It seems that distribution is happening in Seoul.

mmmmmmmmm: People need to live together. If you're alone, you're just prey for looters, right?

mmmmmmmmm: Winning the lottery and staying in this hell makes me feel dizzy.

Now that he was going to a better place, he boldly criticized our colleagues and our way of life.

This guy, I had known him for quite some time, but he wasn't the type to write a lot of posts, let alone post such strange and twisted content.

While I understood his happiness, it was somewhat embarrassing. So, I said a word.

SKELTON: (Skeleton Advice) m9, do you really think winning the lottery is a promotion? Let's keep it reasonable.

It turned out I wasn't the only one who thought that way. Following my Skeleton advice, several users gave him a piece of their minds.

But our lottery winner, m9, didn't stop.

mmmmmmmmm: If you're jealous, just admit it. Let's be honest. Don't you all want to get out of the bunkers? Some people are running out of supplies. Some nearly froze to death last winter, and of course, you guys have no women, right? The losers abandoned by society.

m9 continued to spread vitriolic comments.

It was the moment a new villain emerged on the forum.

Of course, the community friends wouldn't stand for it.

Anonymous848: Block him.

Kyle_Dos: I'm blocking this guy too.

Anonymous458: What's Human Hunter doing? Isn't he going after this guy?

Blocking and ignoring. It was a measure taken by our community users against those who disrupted the forum's order.

Although m9 had once been on the blocklists of many users, he unexpectedly rose to prominence as a 'named' character and left a short, bold message in response to the criticism.

Defender: Do you believe in this country, or not?

m9 didn't respond.

Maybe he didn't want to die.

After all, he was just killing people entering his house, and he wasn't hesitating to engage in remote murder missions. He crawled into Seoul pretending to be a regular person, worked in national labour, and even enjoyed toilet paper—all in all, he didn't seem like someone who should be underestimated.

But this guy, m9, at least for me, had some good memories.

I know him.

He was a member of the original fan club of John nenon.

He was one of my few friends in my early twenties.

He might not remember me, but I remember him.

I remembered him grilling meat at a makeshift meat restaurant as I listened to K-Wokey Tofu.

Should I contact using the personal identification number?

One-on-one communication using personal identification numbers.

A privilege of the apocalypse enjoyed only by those with personal identification numbers.

"Senior contacted me first. What's going on? I don't have much to do right now. Well, there are plenty of positions on the front lines. It's overflowing."

Through the radio, faint jazz music could be heard.

The scenery and the air on his side were probably quite different.

"I have one thing I want to ask."

I inquired about the apartment in question.

I had contacted this troublesome junior myself because I had doubts that the apartment would be built properly. Even if conglomerates were officially recognized as nobles now, there was no company capable of taking on the construction. Even if they tried to recruit people, how would they secure the materials and set up a self-sufficient system, especially for a large complex that would house thousands of households? Above all, the fact that the government was distributing such a lottery felt fundamentally distorted.

"Hope is..."

The image of Kim Daram exhaling cigarette smoke came to mind.

"Nothing more than an illusion."

She was probably looking at the ruins outside the window. A city destined to lose its present and even its future, a city of impending doom.

After a brief silence, she added another piece of information with a shallow sigh.

"We're going to Jeju Island. We'll withdraw by next spring at the latest."

Just after she finished speaking, strangely, the roar of a transport aircraft from above echoed loudly within my bunker.

"..."

A single question that had been on my mind for a long time was answered.

"Don't tell this story to anyone else. It's quite confidential."

I naturally accepted her request.

I was the only one who knew, and I hadn't told anyone else.

I did what I could.

SKELTON: That apartment has a very high probability of not being built. You never know how things will turn out in this world, so make sure to take care of your bunker and resource management.

I sent a direct message to m9.

That day, it was my own way of showing gratitude for his diligent work in grilling and cutting meat at the makeshift meat restaurant.

A reply came shortly.

mmmmmmmmm: Block.

He doesn't accept goodwill as it is.

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